When Adrian Chan grows up, he wants to be an architect, a car designer and an engineer.
Little Adrian shrugged his shoulders when it was pointed out he’s going to be a busy man when that day comes.
Suffice to say, it’s hard to argue with anything this very talented six-year-old says, given that he’s already won a national engineering drawing contest and is in the final five in the youth category of the Royal Canadian Mint’s national coin design contest.
And at home, he’s in good company, too, with his sister, Noreen, 11, scooping the national engineering prize for her age and his dad, Anson, a design engineer in Richmond.
“Adrian has been drawing every single day since he was three,” said his mom, Christy Ho.
“When he wakes up, the first thing he does is draw.”
Adrian, who’s about to go into Grade 2 at Diefenbaker elementary, was picked out of around 10,000 entries for the mint’s competition to have a commemorative coin made to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.
The six-year-old’s inventive drawing of an orca “whale plane” caught the judges’ eyes and he will now compete against four others in the “Our Future” category for votes from the public across Canada.
“At school, we were talking about aboriginal culture so I thought I would draw a whale plane,” said Adrian, when asked why he chose his design.
“It meant nature, community and goodness to me and it could fly around the world spreading goodness. The solar panels look cool, they could power the plane.”
If, indeed, Adrian’s cool coin design is chosen, it would take pride of place along with his and his sister’s prized collection in their piggy banks at their home near Steveston Highway and Railway Avenue.
“They love designing things and they also love sports, such as ice skating and swimming,” said their dad.
“But both of them collect coins and then save them in the piggy bank. They’re always on the lookout for special coins. Adrian has been collecting coins since he was two and Noreen for the last seven years.”
And, said their dad, both Adrian and Noreen, who wants to be a software engineer when she grows up, the kids have been selected to represent Canada in a global Toyota car design contest.
Other finalists from Richmond in the Royal Canadian Mint contest include Stephen Hsia, in the Our Character category, and Timothy Hsia, in the Our Wonders category.
The online voting system is open now on www.Mint.ca/Canada150 and will close on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. (Pacific).
